May 8, 2010

A Minority Report....

That's just the title I could think of. Perhaps Tom Cruise's film [of the same title] was on my mind...

Oh well, what do you think of the counter report that the CNMI government is now scrambling to produce in order to provide a separate report on the veracity and credibility of the Federal Ombudsman's Office Report on the 20,000 migrant workers present in the islands?

"The Fitial administration has concerns about the data gathered by the Federal Labor Ombudsman, as well as the survey of only 10 Saipan Chamber of Commerce members to decide the fate of the CNMI economy, among other things.

“There are two main issues here-Interior's failure to meet the consultation requirement, and the credibility of data used to determine the future of the Commonwealth. One of the major tasks is to identify the potential impacts on the economy of these decisions...."

While the 20,000 legal aliens in the CNMI firmly clasp their hands in utter hope that they will finally be given permanent status in the CNMI or US citizenship, the rest of us can't help but think that this will be once again an uphill battle.

As the old adage goes appropriate for the islands, "Patience is indeed a vir-chew..."

The Governor did comment on the DOI report. Please give your uncle Ben a call and ask if he submitted the local government comments to DOI in February of 2010.

Do you think if you keep saying the same thing over and over again it will become truth? It won't., But you will appear as you do now, crazy.

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Also, I know it will be hard for you to do so you may want to get another person to help you, but you should read the GAO report. It sheds great light on the childish tactics of your great Fitial administration.

If you look at the comment above yours, you will see that he links to the GAO report, the first page of the exact section you are referring to. Did he find that by magic, without reading it?

As for CNMI input to the Interior report, Interior did not have the integrity to acknowledge or address the CNMI position (if any), and the solicitation and response you refer to do not appear from the report as published online.

Typical Interior cover-up. So much for transparency and open government amongst the feds.

Even the progressive commentator Ruth Tighe, well-photographed on the Unity March and elsewhere, is asking in her column yesterday why Interior did not tell Congress how many foreign national workers had been in the CNMI more than ten years.

Absolutely right! Congress will not be fooled! Reading comprehension is required but hit the GAO report again and you will see how they are not at all fooled by the petty antics of this administration. LOL

Wow. You are upset about the lack of transparency in the DOI report. You, along with Ruth Tighe, are mad that the numbers are not broken down in more detail in the report and that you must ask to get the appendices. That is tragic ain't it?

Hmmm. Why, pray tell, are you not upset (and have you not ever been upset) about the local government keeping or making available ANY statistics for the public with any sort of detail.

Where are they? Where are yours and CNMI labor and old immigration statistics?

Where are CNMI Labor links online to the statistics on Guest workers and foreigners in the CNMI?

Where is the open government and transparency crap you are throwing at the DOI report?

I have asked CNMI Labor & Immigration for 3 years for a breakdown of numbers or even just a BIG ROUND number of aliens in the CNMI.

Guess what, ass clown? NADA. Or as Kilili, says, natting!

They have produced no report, no statistic, no natting, that indicates how many Aliens, how many working, how many unemployed, how many years, etc.

CNMI labor and the rest of this government were and are lead by a bunch of imbeciles.

so if i understand her correctly, she is afraid of our fragile system of CNMI government (which she thinks should be a sort of exception from the normal US form of government) being unduly impacted by the granting of US citizenship to people that have been here for more than 5 years. it would be okay in florida or cali but not here, is what she surmises.

hmmm. let's go on. she says she would be okay with foreign workers getting permanent residency that would not allow them the right to vote. she claims that their vote will undermine and destroy our unique local CNMI form of government.

now i ask that you step back. what i am about to say will destroy her train of thought and her belief system.

i know first hand that ruth is not an NMD. i also know that she has voted here in the CNMI for years.

she along with many others have come to these, fragile shores, with a blue passport in hand and have registered to vote in this fragile government and have placed that vote.

upon doing so she has corrupted this fragile form of CNMI government. she has tainted the local vote and the local governmental direction with an outside vote.

what complaints has she ever issued on that front. as thousands of US citizens have landed on these fragile shores and cast their votes, changing the character of the CNMI, totally and radically.

why has she not professed outrage at not only those many US citizens who have moved to the CNMI in the last 20 years to teach, to doctor, to lawyer, to bum around and to do whatever they feel, casting their votes in this unique and fragile CNMI government?

the chance of a large corporation or a military buildup or just a ton of US passport holding citizens coming to the CNMI and registering to vote within 90 days is a legal possibility. why has she not preached about closing the door on this possibility.

why has voted, why is she writing a column that affects the mindset of local voters and influences their decision making. she is but a librian that arrived on these fragile shores many years ago. not any different than Mrs. (insert contract worker name) who cam here in 1989 to be a local librian and still resides on these shores today. the difference is that ruth can vote but Mrs (contract worker) still cannot.

a comparison which hits home a bit more is that of buckingham who arrived here a mere 6 years ago and is not only impacting our government through his vote. he is also instrumentally impacting through his audacious policy implementations (one may call them illegal) and Mrs. (insert contract worker) still can not simply vote.

ruth's logic is severely warped. either that or i have just not bore witness to her outrage at all the US citizens coming to these shores and affecting our fragile and unique form of government.

The question of true importance is what level of longevity for unskilled guest workers, who were never promised anything, is most appropriate to get a compassionate grant of Lawful Permanent Residence.

It used to be 10 years, now worker advocates are pushing for 5 years, and Angelo wants zero!

Do I hear 15? 12?

What would really help in this matter would be Interior's public presentation of the numbers for each year of longevity.

How many with 1 year, 2, 3, 4, all the way up to 25 or 30 years or as high as it goes?

This is data Congress, our leadership, our citizens, and our guest workers could all use to make reasoned policy choices.

i think they realize that. you may want to cue fitial and bucky and cinta on that. the GAO report shed tremendous light on our local governments failures to work with the feds.

doi's report also reiterates that same problem.

kilili, himself, has stated that our government needs to work with the feds. he was very upset with all of these antics. i think he is very upset now with joe c his opponent trying to further undermine any type of negotiations with the feds.

we must all remember that kilili is "the fed" now. :-) or did you forget? he is a federally paid elected employee.

now, now. it appears you are losing your conviction. why don't you just stick to the "glen" tag.

you were so sure of yourself why go and screw it up now. i guess that is your modus operandi. tell a lie as long as you can and hope people buy it. if it doesn't fly, switch it up a bit and continue to propagate the lie. if it still doesn't work go back to original lie. if that doesn't work then build a straw man argument and attack that. :)

I was never convinced of Angelo's theory that you were Lillian F. Hammerhead, though I do agree with all the rest. [Angelo, when you click on the link, note what page turns up.]

While our Delegate may be a "fed," he works for us. And the term is usually applied to Executive Branch employees.

Interior has for years played the game of CNMI-baiting at "oversight" hearings. Like a mousetrap.

It won't work this time because we now have a voice at the table. However much Kilili has to position himself against Camacho's anticipated demagoguery, he can't let Interior hurt the CNMI and its people. And he won't.

I have read all of the Administration's actions as described in the report.

They don't undo the significant failures by DHS and Interior. Particulary in the hide-the-ball answer to Question #3.

Angelo, you claimed to know who a specific poster was, who also taught you how to do HTML links. I'm not looking to be outed (don't want the wrath of "Stuck on Stupid" to follow me forever -- see above); just confirming for yourself whether you really did or didn't know.

But Glen likes to guess, and then you're validating what was previously only a hypothesis.

People do come to recognize each others' writing style and grammatical quirks, though this can be partially negated by such countermeasures as intentional spelling errors and imitation of others' peculiarities.

Some people also like to make posts for discussion purposes, "stirring the pot," if you will. That does not mean it is for attribution as their "formal" viewpoint.

If people have more courtesy and civility, it wouldn't matter. But there are some vindictive people out there. See what allegedly happened to poor Glen.

Was he retaliated against for his viewpoints, or punished for misuse of company time and resources? Really, none of us have any right to know. That is a personnel matter, which should remain private.

Except in the view of those who "view transparency as the highest virtue."

According to the Interior Report, those guest workers in the CNMI for 5 or more years constitute about 75.8% of all foreign national workers.

I wonder what the percentage is for 10 or more years?

12 years?

15 years?

Depending on the numbers Interior is hiding, that might be the proper cut-off point as a goodwill gesture for people who were promised nothing.

Remember, according to the Senate Report, the major reason Congress took away CNMI immigration control is that the CNMI was admitting people without having facilities overseas to do necessary anti-terrorism background checks.

How many former New People's Army (NPA), Abu Sayaff, or Jemaah Islamiyah, or Islamic Brotherhood members do we have in our midst? Were they the leaders of the Unity March?

A better characterization might be that we should build bridges and seek support of local political leaders and inhabitants, not going around them to demand privileges from Congress as if they are our God-given right.

Read the comments in this very blog a few months back about reparations, etc. That seems to have been intended as a joke, but showcases how overly insistent we are perceived locally in our confrontational approach.

Like the guests who came to dinner and insist on being given a room of their own or taking over the house.

the guests that are requesting a room didn't come to dinner to eat. You brought them here to cook breakfast lunch and dinner for 30 years straight without giving them a room. Now they request a place to lay down and rest and you say, " GO HOME!".

"not going around them to demand privileges from Congress as if they are our God-given right."

As long as those GUEST WORKERS are on U.S., grade A, best in the world, land o' the free, home o' the brave, soil, you bet your bottom dollar they got a right (god given and man given) to speak to whoever the hell they want.

Now if you think different, then you best get a packing and join your buddy Kim Jong Il.

5 years is the benchmark in the US; I think that is why it is used here. After 5 years in the US a so-called contract worker would have been eligible for citizenship. What the Interior report highlights is that most of the contract workers, under the laws and values of the United States, should already be United States citizens. That they have been denied that for decades is immoral, unAmerica, and racist.

No, a foreign national is only entitled to Lawful Permanent Residence (green card) if in an immigrant category.

Visas for tourism, education, temporary labor, consular positions, business, and other non-immigrant categories do not count!

The proposal is to give non-immigrant CNMI guest workers status as if they had been immigrants.

Interior wants 5 years, others are suggesting 10, 12, or 15.

Recall that one of the major reasons for the take-over was security against terrorism. The CNMI didn't have the resources or consulates to do background checks on the foreign national workers before they came here.

So Congress is going to let them all through the gate without any sort of background checks? I don't think so.

No, the CNMI did not have consulates in the Philippines, China, Bangladesh, or anywhere else.

So, no, the CNMI had no way to do "due diligence" and verify the background and claims of so many of our contract workers.

That was the primary reason stated in the Senate Report 110-324 for federalization, the homeland security issue. That's why the vote was unanimous.

This issue has been made very clear by the many unqualified workers who were hired. In fact, it is the least qualified who are still here. The highly skilled have been able to move on to other countries or even now are already applying for their U.S. Green Cards.

The purpose of Public Law 110-229 was not to assimilate the guest workers but to send them home.

The reason for the status recommendation was to explore the possibility that some limited number of people (such as those here over ten or fifteen years) might get some accommodation out of a sense of generosity and fairness, but not to transform 75% of guest workers into people on the path to citizenship.

Anyone who doesn't see this wasn't paying enough attention when the CNRA passed.